


ephemeral

by ghostscribe



Category: Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Arguing, Death, Gen, Horror, and if Yveltal was way more metal, its a bad time! i dont know what possessed me to write this!! im so sorry!!!, lil bit of gore, the divergence being if lysandre had both box legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:13:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25818652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostscribe/pseuds/ghostscribe
Summary: "I want to live forever. I want to live in a photograph."
Relationships: calem/serena if you squint but damn this is not a shippy fic
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	ephemeral

"I love spring," he says. "Hate autumn, though."

"Why's that?"

"I mean, look," and he gestures around to the flowerbeds, blossoming, buzzing with insects and sprites. "Everything dies off in autumn. It's depressing. _This_ is so nice, though! Why can't flowers bloom year-round?"

She hums, eyes scanning the viridian trees. "Well, you know what they say about flowers and cherry blossoms. Their fleeting nature is what makes them so beautiful in the first place."

"Hm." Pause. "I think it'd be beautiful if it lived forever."

"Would you really appreciate its beauty if it was always around you?"

"You'd be a fool not to, right?" he laughs.

"No, Calem," she counters, "do you think you _would,_ with your human nature, appreciate an ever-lasting beauty?"

"Well," he retorts, "I certainly appreciate _you,_ Serena."

She blushes, rolls her eyes to counter the tell-tale sign of flattery. "I'll grow old too, Calem. We all will, and we'll all die some day. Just like these flowers."

He doesn't answer.

"Just appreciate what you have while you have it. Don't spend all your time seeking a tomorrow like today. Appreciate the present while it's here." Calem doesn't reply. She looks at him, and he's smiling his same old smile. "What?"

"You're kinda morbid." His thoughts don't match his expression.

"I'm not morbid. I'm just realistic. The ephemeral is what makes living beautiful, Calem."

"Hm." Pause. "I beg to differ."

She isn't sure how to respond.

"You know," he pipes up suddenly, "I've been thinking about what Lysandre's been saying about beauty."

"You can't seriously be on his side."

"I'm not, I'm not!" He's quick to defend himself, almost too quick. "I just wanna know your thoughts on it all."

"He's wreaking havoc across Kalos. I'm going to stop him, no matter what." Pause. "Even if you don't want to join me in that endeavor."

"I will, I will," he sighs. "I just - if you could make the most beautiful world you could imagine, what would it look like?"

"Just the way it is. Mom taught me to cherish what's in front of me before she passed."

"Ah."

"I take it _your_ perfect world would be a snapshot of a spring day on repeat."

He laughs. She's not amused.

"Calem."

"...what?"

"...nothing. You wouldn't understand."

"Neither would you."

She feels a wedge driving its way between the two of them.

* * *

"I just - I don't know how it happened, it - he was - Lysandre wasn't a bad man, and yet - "

Sycamore sputters, staring at the screen, one prodigal teen on either side of him, both of them mutedly watching the news with him.

 _"_ \- w-would seem to have awakened some great power," in a reporter's clinical voice, but there's a tremor to the glamorous woman's words, humanity below the television facade. "Lysandre Labs has declined our request for an interview, but we're," a barely perceptible pause, a desperate breath, "monitoring the situation as closely as we can." Pause. "At the moment, Mr. Lysandre Fleur-de-lis is unaccounted for, but has put out a news bulletin on their official website on the matter..."

 _Lysandre Labs' Global Beautification Project: Capturing Perfection,_ is the title of the brief and vague article. Something about it shakes Calem to his core, sends his adrenaline running, his thoughts spiraling. He's confused. He's scared.

"How?" Serena's voice is low. " _How?_ How could he have...?"

He has to do something.

Calem's eyes stay fixed on the television, scanning the blurry background, scenery dancing beautifully behind the members of Team Flare defending their self-proclaimed "secret base," and with a large stone in the background it comes together.

"Geosenge."

Calem breathes the word inaudibly, spoken only to himself, and he starts to run, hellbent on stopping whatever plans Lysandre may have. He'd always gotten weird vibes from the man, always felt uneasy under his gaze. He doesn't fully know what's in store for his region - no one does - but he knows it can't be good. Knows he has to stop it.

"Calem!"

Serena is chasing him.

"Stay back, I can handle it."

"No!"

It's the first time he's heard her shout.

"I'm coming with you. You're not doing this alone, got it?"

And then she adds, as if she knows just how to pull at his heartstrings -

"I can't lose you, too."

He doesn't answer, but he doesn't protest when she follows him.

* * *

"Lysandre!"

He barely remembers the run over here, only knows that they're in Geosenge Town now. He only knows that Lysandre seems direly unfazed by their presence.

"Ah, you two." The man turns to face them, and Calem takes note of the remote-looking device in his hand, the emptiness in his eyes, the way he stands like a statue. "When will you stop meddling with my plans?"

"When you stop planning to bring harm to Kalos! What are you going to do?" Serena takes a step in front of Calem, as if Lysandre's icy presence will freeze Calem's spirit over, as if he'll shatter under the man's stare.

"How _dare_ you speak to me in that tone. You act as if I want to hurt this world."

"I _know_ you want to. Why else would you - "

"Silence, girl. You know _nothing._ "

"Then - " and it's Calem's turn to speak, finally, "show us what you want."

"Oh?" He raises an eyebrow, Serena whispers Calem's name, but Calem ignores her, takes a step forward.

"I don't claim to know what you're after," he shrugs. "In fact, you haven't really told us much other than that you want to make this world beautiful. How are you gonna do that?"

Lysandre stares at Calem, almost doubts his sincerity, or perhaps he's just questioning it, wondering why the so-called _hero_ who's been meddling with Team Flare is suddenly willing to sit and chat, perhaps over a cup of tea and some pastries in some high-end cafe.

Lysandre's eyes drop to Calem's mega ring. Something under the earth quakes.

"Have you been sharing that mega ring?"

Calem just looks at Serena, and she looks back, and their eyes meet and beg one another to answer just one question, _were we supposed to?,_ but there is no answer.

"You see? When there is not enough to share, when resources are barren," another tremor, longer, more violent, "when there is not enough for all living things, some wither. Some turn to theft, to war, to the ugliest instincts that lurk within us."

Another tremor. Both Calem and Serena nearly fall over. A stone arch collapses behind them. Lysandre remains rooted in place.

"Don't you two see?" Lysandre shouts over the earthquake, and only now does Calem notice the man's finger has pressed a trigger on the remote, and only now does Calem realize they were too late. "This world's beauty will be lost if we all carry on living like this! Life as we know it is unsustainable, see? At this rate, we'll _all_ rot!"

There's a shrill, booming _caw_ from under the earth. At last, the trainers topple, Serena falls backwards and Calem falls to his stomach.

"So - "

A monster of a Pokémon looms behind Lysandre.

" - wouldn't you agree - "

Its blue eyes pierce through Calem's very soul.

" - that even the most perfect pastries - "

He is confused. He is scared.

He is _terrified._

" - require a few broken eggs?"

Lysandre is smiling, and he seems to be truly smiling. Like the reporter, like Serena when she loses, like Sycamore when he recalls what a good friend Lysandre once was, this man's smile has always been artificial, forced; and yet now he is honestly _smiling_.

"Now then, Yveltal..."

Even knowing the fate he's about to bestow onto the world, he smiles.

So too does Calem, because he doesn't know what else to do.

"Will you help me perfect this world?"

The Pokémon of Death - Yveltal - it shrieks, flaps its wings, a pulse of rank dark smoke washes over all of Geosenge, perhaps over all of Kalos. It smells like dirt and mold and rotting flesh. Smells like death. What else would it smell like?

Calem turns to his side, doesn't know why he does but he does, and he sees a ray of a rich red energy, like blood, like the blood spilt from the innocent resident's body, then another, another, flesh starts to flay and the screams are shrill then bubbling, humans and Pokémon alike drowning in their own bodies, humans and Pokémon melting at the beast's power, humans and Pokémon becoming ugly and rotting and decaying, humans and Pokémon _dying._

The grass under Calem has withered.

"H-Ha. Ahah..." Is Calem crying? Laughing? He's not sure.

He hears, faintly, Serena calling out to him, hears her choking on the smog. He tries to take a breath for himself but finds his body rejecting his mind's command.

"You see, boy?" Lysandre approaches. He shoves the toe of his boot under Calem's chin and tilts his head up, forces him to make eye contact. "Just breaking a few eggs to bake a cake. There's nothing to fear."

Beside the man's foot and Calem's face, a member of Team Flare falls to the ground. Her skin almost drips off her face, the smell of blood is sickening. Looks like she's been rotting for months but couldn't have been dead for more than a minute.

Oh god, she's dead.

Oh god, everyone is dying.

_We'll all die someday._

Serena was right. 

Calem screams. He Laughs. _Laughs._

* * *

"Calem?"

He awakens, barely, takes in his surroundings. He seems to be in a hospital of some sort, he's only been here once when he broke his arm as a kid but it looks familiar. Serena's described her hospital visits to him before too, noted the sterility of the walls and the minty green of the gown she was given and the curtains surrounding her bed, yes, hospital, hospital bed.

Yes, he was dreaming.

"Calem, please, answer me."

He's being shaken. Looks up. Serena and Shauna and Professor Sycamore surround him.

"Oh." He feels lightheaded, disoriented. "Heh, hi. How's it going?"

The three of them look between each other, as if to ask _who's gonna tell him?,_ but they don't need to say a word. He senses the truth. Looks up and sees the television, sees the news, the silhouette of the still-rampaging Pokémon of Death.

No, he was not dreaming.

"Ahah... funny, I - I-I thought..." Thought it was just a dream. "Thought that... ah..."

He blinks, reads the subtitle. _Death toll to surpass 15,000 by midnight,_ written in careless capital letters.

"Am I gonna die?"

"You're alright, Calem," Sycamore assures him, though Calem wonders if he even believes it, if the urgency in his voice indicates a lie, as if the professor wants to convince himself. "You just passed out, you're okay - "

"I'm not okay."

Silence. Shauna starts, fails to utter Calem's name. Serena tries, fails to look at him.

"I'm not okay 'cause he wants to kill us." The girls shudder. Sycamore looks at the wall as if it'll tell him how to help. "He's gonna kill us."

"We still have a chance to stop him," Serena declares, her voice somehow firm, somehow _strong_ in the face of decay. "He has Xerneas trapped below Geosenge too. If we can rescue Xerneas, it can calm Yveltal down, right?"

"The trouble with that is having them both awake at once," Sycamore interjects. Calem looks at his hands and they seem too dry. Old. "Legendary Pokémon are impossible to predict, but more likely than not, the two of them will just fight, and then..."

"What else are we supposed to do? Yveltal is out there killing people every minute we spend in here doing nothing!" _Kill,_ Serena says. Says it's _killing_ people.

"You're the one who said we'll all die someday, right, Serena?"

All eyes fix on Calem. He smiles at her and she _glares._

"Now is _not_ the time for that, Calem."

"Yeah, w-what's gotten into you?" Shauna finally speaks up. "How hard did you hit your head?"

"I'm just sayin'."

"Calem, enough," Sycamore places his hand on Calem's shoulder, and somehow that's the straw that makes him feel like the world is truly turning on him.

"No, not - no, I - "

"Calem - "

"Calem?!"

He doesn't finish his thought, doesn't even know what he'd mean to say. He's already on his feet, he's grabbed his jacket and bag, hasn't even bothered to find his shoes, no, he knows what needs to be done.

He knows what _he_ needs to do.

* * *

"Mr. Lysandre! We have an intruder!"

"Of course we do. Would it happen to be that girl again?"

"No, sir, it's the boy with the mega ring!"

"Ah..."

Lysandre paces in front of Xerneas' cocoon, the membrane glowing brighter each second. Outside this room the world smells rotten and ugly, but in here he almost forgets about Yveltal, smells fresh meadows and amaranth emanating from the legend's cradle.

"What do we do, sir?"

"Is he alone?"

"Y-Yes, but he's - oh god - "

There's a sudden violent blast of heat, no doubt an attack from the boy's Delphox, and the grunt who was reporting to Lysandre falls deathly silent. Footsteps echo mutedly through the room, a sense of quiet before the storm. He has half a mind to snap the boy's neck before he gets a chance to say anything, but then -

"Xerneas looks pretty cozy there."

\- the boy speaks so calmly, and as his footfalls draw nearer, Lysandre notes a distinct dampness to the echo.

Lysandre says nothing, merely looks at Calem. That boy is smiling.

"Not for long," Lysandre says simply. "Within the next twenty-four hours, we will have harnessed enough energy to awaken Xerneas, and then... we..."

He can't help but look down. Calem isn't wearing shoes. His feet are covered in blood. Doesn't seem to be his own.

"What then?" He - the boy sounds _excited,_ of all things. "Xerneas is the Pokémon of Life, isn't it? I know your game! You'll have Yveltal cull the excess and use Xerneas to preserve the earth's beauty, right? Is that your vision for a perfect world?"

Lysandre, typically, is a man who is very aware of his feelings. He's ruled by logic but he feels intensely, and he knows _what_ he feels, and he knows how to react, and he knows how to get what he wants.

In this moment, he's not sure how to feel about the young prodigy. He's not sure what he wants to do with the boy.

"Cull the excess?" He only asks to understand what Calem is thinking, what the hell is going through his head.

"Yeah! Y'know, we're already running low out there," he says with a tremor in his voice, but Calem smiles still. "Had to run past some ugly scenes on my way here. You oughta put a doormat in here somewhere, you know. Blood's an ugly shade. Not good for your interior decorating here, ahah."

"...Calem."

"Yes, Lysandre?"

That voice is... wrong. "I plan to use the Ultimate Weapon to wash the world clean of this era's filth. It has worked once before. It will work again." Pause. "You won't stop me."

"Of course I won't!" What? "But! But but but - I have a favor to ask of you!"

"A... you are an adversary, boy."

"I don't have to be!" _What?_ "We can make this work, right? Don't you want to live in this beautiful world you're creating? What is beauty if there's no one to appreciate it?" And his voice is trembling again, he doesn't look _scared_ but something in him is different than when they last met, something is terribly _wrong_ with the boy, now. "Let me join you. Let's destroy ephemera."

"...destroy ephemera."

"Think about it!" Calem waves his arms out, theatrical boy, and with the gesture comes the stench of death from the world outside. "You have to fire this weapon _again_ to beautify the world, huh? How _unsustainable_ of you! What an unsustainable machine! You'll just have to hope someone else will fire it off again 3,000 years down the line to keep the world beautiful, won't you? How can you trust that your work isn't temporary, Lysandre? How stupid are you?! I don't think you could be that dumb!"

The boy laughs as he speaks. Something in him is broken.

"Here's my proposition, Lysandre," Calem - these shattered remains of that boy - he holds Lysandre's hand in both his own, smiles up at him, eyes glimmer like a child asking for a bar of chocolate in a candy store. "Yveltal kills. _Permanently._ Doesn't Xerneas bestow eternal life? I want to live forever. I want to live in a photograph."

Lysandre's heart is racing. He's confused by the boy. He's almost _scared_ of him.

"I want to live in a world where the cherry blossoms are always in season in Kanto, where the poinsettias never wilt in Sinnoh, where our grapes never sour and our meteor showers forever light the Kalosian skies. Wouldn't that be perfect, Lysandre? Wouldn't that be _beautiful?"_

He sees an opportunity. He sees a tool in Calem.

"I want to live forever, Lysandre."

"...will you do me a favor, then, Calem?"

"Anything!"

Lysandre, father of the perfect world, Calem, its son, and the holy spirit dwelling within the legendary behind them. Yes, this can be a beautiful world.

This will _redefine_ beauty.

* * *

"Calem?!"

She had no doubt that Team Flare had stolen the keystones, no doubt at all. First Korrina called her in a panic, claiming someone had stolen hers, then Sycamore, and then Serena had elected to go straight to the source, brave the hellscape that once was a luscious Kalos in search of Team Flare's base of operations.

She didn't expect Calem to have made it here before her.

She didn't expect to see him standing _beside_ Lysandre, putting his own keystone into that cursed machine.

"Calem!" She _shrieks,_ because he doesn't acknowledge her at first, no, he keeps his eyes locked on the cocoon in front of him, glimmering with brilliant iridescent light, threatening to hatch at any second. Belatedly, he turns to face her, and he's smiling, and she feels - she feels like she doesn't recognize him.

"Hey, Serena! How're you holding up?"

"How am I... what the hell are you doing here?!"

"Calem," Lysandre explains, and Serena glares at him all the while, "has made a sort of business deal with me. A contract, if you will. We all pay each other with goods and services in this world, you see. He offers the energy of the keystones to hatch Xerneas, and I offer _him,_ " and he looks at Calem with something approaching fondness perhaps, she's not sure, "that which he seeks."

"Calem...?"

Calem looks at her, still smiling, and it doesn't seem disingenuous but it doesn't look like _his_ smile, it's too wide and too manic and too, too -

"Serena?"

"What... What did you do?"

"Got the keystones, like he said, that's all," as if she'll brush it off, as if she'll excuse it. "Hey, Serena..."

He steps towards her, she steps back.

"Calem?"

"Remember what you said about how we all die someday? Remember that?" Oh god, dear god, this is not Calem's voice, he doesn't sound like this, doesn't smile like that, this is _not Calem_ \- "I beg to differ, Serena. I beg to fucking differ."

"Calem, you're scaring me!"

"I'm scared too, Serena!" he screams. The cocoon behind him shudders, and the keystones placed in the base of the machine start to glow; the energy in the room is thick and electric. "I'm _terrified,_ Serena! I don't want to die! Did you see them, Serena? Did you smell it? Did you see the rot? It's ugly, Serena! It's _disgusting!_ I don't want that to happen to me!"

The iridescent shell surrounding what could only be Xerneas begins to shatter.

"I don't want that to happen to _you,_ Serena." He's talking too fast, too frantic, this isn't Calem. "You're beautiful. I love you. Can't bare to see you rot like that."

"C-Calem?"

"Calem...?" Hell, even Lysandre sounds worried.

She hears something crackling - the cocoon, what else would it be? Something seems to scream, and if rainbows could make a sound, she imagines that's the noise she must be hearing, it's not the blood-curdling scream of Yveltal but it has the same power behind it, beautiful and terrifying all at once.

"That thing out there's not just a Pokémon, Serena. It's Death itself."

"Calem, please..." Is she crying? She can't tell. She's just shaking.

"I don't want us to die, Serena."

"Calem, boy, calm yourself - "

"No!" And suddenly he's all aggression, burning eyes and barred teeth at Lysandre. "I've _done_ your favor, our contact is over! This is _my_ choice now!"

"You insolent little - "

"Delphox," and the poor fox is sent out into this world of chaos, "Mystic Flame!"

Delphox doesn't have a chance to even see his opponent, just fires the attack at Lysandre, and there's screaming and while it's not unfamiliar by any stretch of the imagination, Serena still winces at the scent of burning flesh.

"Gyarados, Outrage!"

The cocoon fully shatters at last, the sound reverberating like a shattering chandelier. So much happening and Serena can't stop any of it.

"Xerneras, _help!"_

The deer hears her plight, peers down at her, an unwavering tranquility shining in its eyes. Its horns glow brighter than the sun in every imaginable color, and she swears she even sees shades that she's never seen before emanating around it.

"Xerneas!" Calem _cheers_ for the deer, sounds like a kid in a candy store. "Xerneas, Xerneas, you're here, perfect, that's _perfect!_ I need your help, fast!"

Calem reaches out to the deer. It steps back, leans away.

Something in Calem stirs.

"W... Wait, what...?"

Serena looks around, desperate to process what's going on. Lysandre is still _on fire_ but he's frantically flipping switches on the Ultimate Weapon, and - god, how long do they have to stop him? Can they escape? Was she too late?

Did Calem doom the earth with his own selfish desires?

"Calem!" She just - just starts screaming, hoping, praying, that something will get through to him. "This isn't worth it! It's not gonna work! Xerneas won't save you!"

"I..." Calem looks around, the weapon rises and slowly unfolds like a flower, its glow lighting the dark cave like day, "I - no, no, I - it was - this'll work, it's supposed - Xerneas, you - "

Xerneas coos at Calem. Serena hears - and she knows it isn't speaking, Pokémon don't usually speak, but she swears she hears it - she hears it speak.

_You are misguided._

Calem goes limp, looks down, seems to question... everything, perhaps. Lysandre commands his Gyarados to fire a Hydro Pump at Xerneas but the legend perfectly blocks the attack.

The earth quakes. The ceiling starts to collapse.

_Oh god._

Serena just - she scrambles to her feet, slips in a puddle of something, can't tell if its oil or blood or some liquid from the cocoon, but it's the least of her worries, she stumbles and stands and stumbles again, practically crawls toward the stairs that lead her down here in the first place.

She turns back. Xerneas is glowing with a brilliant light, brighter than the weapon, Lysandre is screaming incoherently and Calem is frozen in place.

"Calem!" No answer. "Calem - _aaahh!"_

Her leg is caught under a boulder. That scream is what finally brings Calem to his senses.

"Psychic!"

Delphox chatters in terror, but nonetheless she feels the weight lift, the pain doesn't subside at all but she can at least crawl away -

And suddenly he's running to her, he recalls Delphox and picks her up in one swift motion, rushes up the stairs and out of the blinding tomb.

She can't open her eyes, but she can sense the chaos around her. She hears screaming, collapsing earth, she smells death outside but the scent collides with something fresh and floral from below. She's suddenly shoved against a wall, a rush of lush air wafts past her, then Calem is running with her again. Even at a sprint she feels that he's lagging.

"Calem!"

"I know!" Though she doesn't even know what she means to say, and she's positive he doesn't either. "I know, I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I - _oh fuck -_! "

She's falling, then she hits the ground, feels the world fading, and she confides in herself that perhaps -perhaps she was not so content with her mortality as she claimed to be.

* * *

Serena is wearing noise-cancelling headphones at the parade.

She hobbles away from the action on her crutches, and Calem follows her, wants to see if she's doing any better. Their usual hours of chatter have been mere minutes in the week or so following the recent events (and he simply calls them recent events, doesn't have the heart to think of the incident as anything more than an incident.)

(Doesn't have the heart to admit his involvement.)

"So..."

Serena slides the headphones off, flinches as she does. Even this far away from the festivities, she is uneasy in the jungle of noise, and admittedly, so too is Calem. He finds comfort in knowing there is still life, at least.

(Denies how high the death toll was. Denies that he saw the final death toll rise to over 21,000.)

"How does it feel being a _hero,_ Calem?"

She says the word with disdain. He doesn't blame her.

"Oh, y'know, it's... alright," because he's not sure what the right answer is, not sure if any other answer would hurt more or less than that. "Kinda puts a lotta pressure on me, but, y'know, I've dealt with worse, ahah."

She looks at him. Her eyes are blue and he'd always compared them to the sky, the ocean, the forget-me-nots in his front yard.

"How does it feel," and she grabs him by the collar of his jacket, balancing all her weight on one crutch, pays no mind to the way she chokes him, "knowing that if it weren't for _me,_ you wouldn't have saved _anyone,_ Calem?"

She's fuming. He smiles at her because he doesn't know what else to do.

"Calem." No answer. "You almost killed us all."

He has never compared her eyes to those of Death.

(Denies that he is more comparable to Death than she is.)

"If," and he breathes in, winded with just that word, feels her sucking the life out of him like Death itself, "if you'd let me keep working things out with Lysandre, then - "

"No, _no!_ It was _never_ going to work out, Calem! Do you underst- ?"

"If you'd let me finish, Serena," and he puts two fingers to her lips, as close to a kiss as they'll ever share. "If you let me, I could've found the secret to immortality, and we would've _all_ been saved. _Forever."_

(Denies there's a flaw in his logic. Denies he was deluded. Denies he still is.)

"Forever?" As if she doesn't recognize the word. "Forever?! Did you really think that was the solution?! That the alternative to genocide was immortality?! What life is worth living where every day is the same?! What is life without death?! Life is meant to be _ephemeral,_ Calem! Life's _fleetingness_ is what makes it so precious!"

"Is that really what you think," and he's almost whispering, still smiling, almost crying, his heart is on overdrive and he doesn't know what to do or say or think, "or do you just say that to make yourself feel better when everyone you've ever loved dies?"

She's stunned. Hurt.

"Do you just say that, Serena Donnadieu?"

 _Donnadieu - a surname meaning "given to god," sometimes given to orphaned children._ It's not the surname she uses anymore but she confided in Calem that it was her name at birth, and he - he -

"I hate you, Calem."

\- he doesn't blame her for saying that. Doesn't blame her for meaning it.

(Doesn't deny that he was at fault this time.)

**Author's Note:**

> yknow i was going to try writing a nameless botanist au where Red runs a flower shop in Kalos and Green is a tired Indigo league champion  
> i dont know why this is what came out instead and i am so sorry  
> fun fact to lighten the mood, this is titled "calem does a fucky wucky" on my computer! im off to try and write something more pleasant now have a good evening


End file.
